ESP Floodwall in Chaing Mai, Thailand – Everlast Synthetic Products

ESP is renown around the globe for our quality products, technical expertise, and experience when it comes to seawalls and inland floodwalls.

That combination led to ESP being selected to supply our vinyl piling systems for a major floodwall project in Chaing Mai, Thailand. The floodwall project was one of many of our international seawall projects.

A Challenging Terrain

The project site was vast, and included numerous installations, buildings, roadways, fences, and other valuable assets in need of protection from flooding.
Accordingly, the new floodwall needed to accommodate all these obstructions, which in part necessitated three different wall configurations.

Protecting Assets with a Floodwall

Unlike seawalls, floodwalls are needed anywhere flooding is prevalent, and can be constructed anywhere. In the event of flooding the foundation soils become saturated, and water weakens the shear strength of these soils supporting the wall. Traditional concrete walls with spread footings would have a greater probability of failing due to the relatively shallow depth of their foundation. However, ESP vinyl sheet pile proved to be a more stable option by driving the sheets of sufficient depth to ensure stability of the foundation soils of the sheet pile floodwall.

Soil saturation and reduction of its shear strength is what ultimately caused the floodwall failures in New Orleans after Katrina, so in Chaing Mai ESP provided long length sheets that were driven deep into the ground to ensure the soil shear strength was maintained. This depth had the added benefit of providing additional structural support, as well. Typically, 2-3 meters of piling remained above ground to protect against rising water.

ESP’s experienced engineers also provided design support for the four various floodwall designs. Varying heights, soil parameters, water levels, and obstructions created design and construction challenges that were easily overcome as a result of ESP’s technical experience and the product’s versatility.

ESP Vinyl Piling Selected for Strength, Durability, and Impermeability

ESP 4.1 vinyl piling was selected for the Chaing Mai floodwall project for its overall strength and versatility. Due to the unique compact section properties of the ESP 4.1, it provided a “stiffer nail” for driving into a variety of soil conditions.

Special expandable joint sealant was also used to make the proprietary interlocking vinyl system water tight. A similar ESP watertight system was used at the Stauffer Chemicals cleanup project, where ESP was selected because it was the only manufacturer with a watertight marine-grade resin system.

The underground and surface portions of the wall were constructed out of vinyl sheet piling, for added structural integrity a top concrete cap was added.

The image galleries below help showcase the scope, topography, and work product of the floodwall project.